


Guest Lecturers

by EpicReader



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Training
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-16
Updated: 2020-10-16
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:35:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,381
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27046573
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EpicReader/pseuds/EpicReader
Summary: (Begin Clone Wars announcer voice)Knowing well the difference between training in the Temple, and the raging war which padawns are thrown into, Yoda is concerned about the next group of padawans to be assigned to Jedi Knights!Making a controversial decision, Yoda recruits an unlikely pair of guest instructors for a surprise lesson!  Can an ex-Jedi and an ex-Sith teach the younglings what awaits them in the galaxy?(End Clone Wars announcer voice)This is placed sometime after Chapter 27 of "How Asajj Ventress Saved the Galaxy and Got Zero Credit" by FrostOnGalway.If you haven't already read it, go do so!
Relationships: Ahsoka Tano & Asajj Ventress
Comments: 4
Kudos: 12





	Guest Lecturers

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [How Asajj Ventress Saved the Galaxy and Got Zero Credit](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16768276) by [FrostOnGalway](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FrostOnGalway/pseuds/FrostOnGalway). 



"Meet again, we do," said Yoda as the door to the room in the temple that Ashoka Tano and Asajj Ventress had been invited to stay in opened before him. 

"Yoda. Finally come to evict us from your precious Temple?" asked Asajj, stepping back into the room and waving the small Jedi Master inside, since Ahsoka was out shopping. She'd fought him once, and as much better as she was now, she knew her limits. Could she escape with a distraction? Of course; but it was no longer time for her to run from a Jedi Master. These were strange times indeed.

"Learn much you have, since Toydaria. Strong you are with the Dark Side, young one. Strong you are with the Light Side, too, now. Stay, you can. Your tooka, stay she can too."

"Humph. What do you want, Yoda?" asked Ventress, turning to the kitchen and taking a teapot from the shelf.

"Know what I want already you do, Master Ventress," said Yoda with a laugh.

"Green tea, yes. Dooku spoke of you sometimes, but he never explained why."

"A test, it is. Laugh, you did not," said the green Jedi.

Asajj set a cup down in front of him and sipped from her own, waiting patiently until they were both finished.

"Younglings, we have. Padawans, they wish to be. Ready, they think they are. Understand the Dark Side, understand war, they do not. Teach them, will you?"

"Free room and board isn't worth dealing with a bunch of snot-nosed kids who think they're worthy to so much as hold my lightsaber. Got enough of that from Ahsoka when she was new. Sithspit, that girl was a match for half your so-called Knights even then."

"Understand, you do. Desire more, you do. Tell me, you may," replied Yoda patiently.

"Your stupid little Jedi holotables are so small I had a bigger one in my Ginivex starfighter. Get me something I can enjoy my holodramas on, and if the kids can avoid wiping their snot on me, fine, I'll teach. Just don't expect my lessons to be all gentle and poodoo."

******************************

Ahsoka and Asajj entered the training room; the former smiling at the younglings, the latter scowling as her cloak billowed around her, hiding her body entirely.

"A special lesson have these two for you. Welcome them, you will!" said Yoda, gesturing to them with his hand.

"WELCOME!" shouted the younglings

Ahsoka snickered at the even fiercer scowl on Asajj's face, and sat down on a chair just a couple feet out from the wall as Ventress used the Force to give her lightsabers to Yoda, just as Yoda had once returned them to her.

"There. Now I'm less likely to kill you bantha-brains by accident," said Asajj.

"Master Yoda?" asked the bravest youngling, looking at the menacing figure with poorly hidden trepidation.

"Strong in the Force, Ventress is. Strong in the Light... and strong in the Dark. Important lessons! Learn, you must!"

Ahsoka leaned forward, speaking in the commanding, confident voice she used on the battlefield while Yoda moved slowly to stand by a wall, out of the way, "Asajj is my good friend, and was a cunning and powerful enemy. I was once a new Padawan, just as you all wish to be, and when I started I was barely able to escape from her or from Grievous with my life. I've learned so much since then, but none of my training in the Temple prepared me for what it was like to fight for real. Watch her! Listen to her! Learn from what she does! What she teaches you might save your life... and if you think it's too much, or her teaching isn't gentle enough, then you should reconsider whether you want to be a Padawan to a Jedi in the field."

"All right, brats. When you face a Dark Side user, or an apprentice to a Sith like I was, or Fallen Jedi if they have any brains - which most don't - or a Bounty Hunter like I am now, or a Pirate..." said Asajj as she paced around the room, her dress brushing against the backs of the chairs and couches the Padawan hopefuls were seated on.

"Or a bunch of bloodsport hunters, or assassins, or slaver gangs, or Seppie generals, or mind-controlling beings, or..." interrupted Ahsoka, smirking as she watched what her friend was doing, taking a seat on a high-backed chair, lounging idly while she waited.

"Any other bad guys, you better get it through your naive little skulls that they don't think like you. They won't fight like you. They don't have that rancor-poodoo Light Side honor crap, they won't give warning. The Force won't help you at all if you don't listen to it all the time, and it won't help you if you go up against someone better than you. And right now, they're all better than you - smarter, sneakier, more treacherous, more cunning, and more prepared than you. So, you pathetic little nothings think you're ready?" lectured Ventress, sneering down at the pair of Padawans who were craning their necks up to see her as she stood directly behind the couch they were on.

"Ye..." started the quickest of the younglings when the muzzles of the blasters Ventress was holding in each hand poked out from her cloak, simultaneously stunning the two in front of her before the rest of the children noticed, and then stunning another two younglings who were still igniting their training sabers as the Force suddenly screamed a warning to those who would hear. Her next flurry of shots was mostly deflected, though another poor youngling went down to a stun bolt hitting his foot before they grouped up and started to charge at Ventress with their training sabers.

Ahsoka casually moved her head out of the way of one not-actually-stray shot, and made a rude gesture back at Asajj, then flipped up and behind her chair when four stun grenades levitated out from under the furniture behind the younglings and detonated as one, stunning the entire remaining set of younglings as Yoda shook his head.

With a casual wave of her hand and use of the Force, Ventress collected the training lightsabers on the table in front of her... then carefully drizzled sticky syrup in a line down each, right over the controls, before turning them controls down to hide the mess from the stunned youngsters.

"Pathetic. Come on, Ahsoka, give me something so I can believe I haven't wasted my time entirely. Yoda, you might as well wake them up. Maybe they'll have learned something.. but I doubt it. Jedi have thick skulls and small brains."

Ahsoka grinned viciously, leaping out from behind a different chair than the one she'd dropped behind before, feet extended towards Asajj as they began fighting mostly bare-handed, though the occasional stun bolt, stun grenade, chair, youngling, or other dirty trick went flying around as the younglings first tried to help Ahsoka fight Asajj, and later simply tried to stay alive and unhurt.

\--

As the door closed behind the pair of Force Users who were bickering good-naturedly about who had done the best in their light spar, Yoda looked around the destroyed room and shook his head at the no-longer-pristine younglings, "Meditate on how terrible war is, you should."

"How can we meditate? Our meditation room looks like a herd of bantha stampeded through it!" exclaimed one youngling.

"I need to clean off my hands and my lightsaber, Master Yoda," said one of the many younglings with sticky hands and an overly sweet lightsaber.

"They were so fast."

"She shot me in the back!"

"Your back was to her!"

"Miss Tano used me as a shield!"

"War is terrible," said Yoda, causing the younglings to quiet down instantly, his voice soft and sad, "People living in peace, without quarrel. Beautiful their cities are! Fertile their farmlands. Armies then come! Comes first one, making demands. Then comes another to fight the first. Battles there are! Terrible, the carnage is. Destroyed, the cities, the farms... this room."

Yoda looked around at the tired, dishevelled younglings, "Leave, the armies do. Fix what was destroyed, they do not. Come! Need this room, other younglings do. Cleaning supplies in the closet there are!"

**Author's Note:**

> Posted as an omake at the invitation of FrostOnGalway!
> 
> I enjoy writing training scenes as anyone reading my other fic knows, and putting Asajj Ventress inside the Jedi Temple just screams out for one - so I wrote it! One of my favorite little bits of Clone Wars is when Asajj helps Ahsoka out, and says "These are strange times."
> 
> That said - I can't imagine the survival rate of padawans is all that great if they're treated like Ahsoka was - here's your master, there, the guy fighting all those droids. Watch out for the big ones! Ahsoka's definitely a prodigy - she survived Asajj, she survived Grievous, both of whom are pretty extreme threats even to a Jedi Knight. She faced off against - and sometimes lost to - a huge range of opposition.
> 
> Now, being paired with The Hero With No Fear and The Negotiator meant she was up against the creme de la creme of the opposition, but still...
> 
> Even if the other brand-new padawans are eased in a little more, a lifetime of being raised in the Temple is not something that prepares one for the Clone Wars... especially if you're a more traditional, thoughtful, peaceful type - unlike Anakin, unlike Ahsoka.
> 
> Especially when, as Asajj and Ahsoka know well, sometimes your ally is actually your enemy.


End file.
